January 29, 2013

Republican fission

Politico's Dylan Byers has reservations about David Brooks' latest incoherence:

I'm ... skeptical about this "coalition of the incompatible." That's what the Republican party is now. If it worked, the factions wouldn't need to split.

What fascinates is that the factions held together as long as they did. The Republican "fusion"--namely Bill Buckley's engineered coalition of libertarians and social conservatives, united by their mutual hatred of communism--is roughly a half-century old, yet many observers present at its creation had prodigious doubts about the political unity of classical liberalism's atomism and more traditional conservatives' communitarianism. Barry Goldwater's '64 presidential run was fusionism's first major outing--the Arizonan libertarian barely tolerated his campaign's desperate mixture of religious conservatism and politics--and was, as well, damn near its last. Few appreciated at the time just how inspired and determined Goldwater's "movement conservatives" had become, and even fewer comprehended (including Goldwater) what a full embrace of the religious right the Republican establishment would execute.

From there, it was a short road to enduring crackpotism. Republicans had white backlash working for them in addition to self-declared (and Democratic-conceded) ownership of God and flag and plenty of well-funded propaganda machinery and, above all, an unprecedented willingness to ruthlessly demagogue absolutely anything, anytime, in any campaign. The assorted fringes flocked to the welcoming GOP, since the GOP wanted every last vote for its accumulation of raw power, and it never fussed about imprudent acquisitions.

And now, it's all collapsing, as most everyone assumed it would--but much sooner.

Comments

Politico's Dylan Byers has reservations about David Brooks' latest incoherence:

I'm ... skeptical about this "coalition of the incompatible." That's what the Republican party is now. If it worked, the factions wouldn't need to split.

What fascinates is that the factions held together as long as they did. The Republican "fusion"--namely Bill Buckley's engineered coalition of libertarians and social conservatives, united by their mutual hatred of communism--is roughly a half-century old, yet many observers present at its creation had prodigious doubts about the political unity of classical liberalism's atomism and more traditional conservatives' communitarianism. Barry Goldwater's '64 presidential run was fusionism's first major outing--the Arizonan libertarian barely tolerated his campaign's desperate mixture of religious conservatism and politics--and was, as well, damn near its last. Few appreciated at the time just how inspired and determined Goldwater's "movement conservatives" had become, and even fewer comprehended (including Goldwater) what a full embrace of the religious right the Republican establishment would execute.

From there, it was a short road to enduring crackpotism. Republicans had white backlash working for them in addition to self-declared (and Democratic-conceded) ownership of God and flag and plenty of well-funded propaganda machinery and, above all, an unprecedented willingness to ruthlessly demagogue absolutely anything, anytime, in any campaign. The assorted fringes flocked to the welcoming GOP, since the GOP wanted every last vote for its accumulation of raw power, and it never fussed about imprudent acquisitions.

And now, it's all collapsing, as most everyone assumed it would--but much sooner.